


So many things to share (and you keep distracting me)

by unpeudeciel



Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: F/M, Missing Scene, season three
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-06
Updated: 2017-05-06
Packaged: 2018-10-28 21:12:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10839546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unpeudeciel/pseuds/unpeudeciel
Summary: A missing scene of our favorite agoraphobic couple from episode 3x18 Happy Birthday, Baby. Because we were robbed of date nights.





	So many things to share (and you keep distracting me)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Rain for the beta and listening to my complaining!

‘So there’s this guy Tobin who works with my mom at the Inn,’ Rory starts, setting out the containers with Indian food on the coffee table while Jess fiddles with the battered VHS player. ‘And – you’re not going to believe this – he’s got this strange competitive thing going on with Michel, vying for mom’s attention, and he got her Joe Strummer’s leather jacket from 1979 for her birthday.’

Jess turns around to face her and she’s sort of delighted by his expression of thinly veiled enthusiasm. It’s not that easy to make him openly excited about something, and she likes discovering new ways to push him in that direction.

The Clash memorabilia will clearly do.

‘What?!’

‘I know, it’s crazy!’ she carries on. ‘I haven’t seen it yet because mom only called me about it earlier.’

He squints at her. ‘How does she know it’s real?’

‘Apparently it comes with a certificate. I may have to do some research to establish it’s definitely not a fake.’

‘That’s really cool,’ he admits as he takes a seat on the couch and hands her a plate.

‘I have to work out how to break it to Lane, she will flip.’

‘Hey, I want to see it too,’ he nudges her. ‘In fact, I’ll take it if your mom decides it’s not funky enough for her, I always wanted a leather jacket.’ 

‘It would suit you,’ she nods earnestly. It’s a pretty appealing image, when she thinks about it. Her mom and Lane make fun of the James Dean thing he’s got going on, but she happens to like it. A lot. ‘Chicken vindaloo?’

‘I really don’t know why I let you order this stuff,’ he grumbles but accepts the container.

She gives him a big smile because this is too easy. ‘Stop sounding like my mother.’

‘Now, that’s a nice comparison.’

‘It is, I like my mother.’

‘Please stop talking.’

‘I’m just saying,’ she meets his glare with a sweet smile and continues to tease, ‘there’s a reason I feel so at home with you,’ she grins before he puts his plate down and attacks her with a cushion.

It doesn’t take long before they’re horizontal.

 

* * *

There’s a jingling of keys, giving them enough time to set a respectable distance between themselves on the couch. She squeezes his arm in reassurance as he smiles tightly, then her mom enters with dramatic sniffing and noises of disgust.

‘Oh good, there’s still food!’ she welcomes them, walking towards the table. 

Rory does like her mother, but more than ever before she’s learning to appreciate the times when the elder Gilmore is out of the house. ‘Weren’t you supposed to have dinner at Sookie’s tonight?’

‘I did,’ Lorelai replies lightly. ‘But you are having Indian and actually eating it is the only way to deal with the smell. How was school today?’

‘Paris got her nose pierced,’ Rory responds and both her mother and boyfriend pause to stare at her in disbelief. ‘She did. And apparently I’m responsible because I suggested that she should live a little.’

‘Oh, Rory,’ Lorelai gasps.

‘I was trying to be helpful! She was having a terrible time dealing with the college rejection letters, I thought she could maybe use a trip to the mall.’

‘And coming from Little Miss Edgy here, poor Paris took the friendly advice to mean she should join Jane’s Addiction,’ Lorelai quips. ‘It makes sense. How’s Stars Hollow High, Jess?’

‘Fine.’

‘You really painted a picture there.’

He shrugs, putting some more food on his plate. ‘It’s school. There’s not much to talk about.’

Lorelai clearly doesn’t disagree, because she gives the teenagers an awkward smile. ‘Save me some korma, I’m going to change.’ She grabs a samosa and retreats upstairs, but Rory decides to pursue the subject.

‘What about work? How was it?’

‘Rory.’

He stares at her a little, somewhat confused and a little frustrated, and she knows it would be easier to put the movie on and forget about it, or to change the subject to the Alice Munro short story collection she started reading on the bus back from school, but she decides to press on this time. They get distracted from talking a lot as it is. 

‘What? I want to know what’s going on with you.’

‘You saw me yesterday.’

‘I know! And we spent most of Almost Famous, you know… not watching it. And not talking either.’

He raises his eyebrows at her. ‘Are you complaining?’

She shifts uncomfortably in her seat because six months into this relationship, she’s comfortable with the heavy makeout sessions and tentative ventures into the third base, but talking about it still causes blushing and slight stuttering and generally feeling like a fool every time.

‘Jess, come on, please. Can’t we have a normal conversation?’

‘We’ve been talking for the last twenty minutes!’ he starts defensively, but she gives him her best Bambi eyes and watches him exhale and put his fork down. ‘Sure. Work is boring and people continue to suck. School is also boring and my copy of The Crucible got confiscated today.’

‘Huh,’ she smiles at him. ‘Let me guess, you were reading it in your Biology class’.

He laughs a little with a mouthful of food. ‘I take offence to that. I actually _try_ to pay attention in Biology these days.’

‘Oh you do?’ she teases.

‘I do. A working knowledge of the human reproductive system can actually be useful in life,’ he tells her in a mockingly solemn voice and she can’t help but giggle. ‘No, Rowland confiscated it in English.’

‘Well that’s ironic.’

‘Tell me about it. I can’t believe they are making us discuss Romeo and Juliet in senior year.’

‘Well, at Chilton we only did it last year.’

‘My point exactly, the system we’re in is completely out of touch. I’ve known that those two were idiots since about the age of nine, and I don’t need a teacher to tell me that the poison is a symbol of the family feud, come on’.

‘Sadly not everyone can be as precocious as you. You should have been home schooled,’ she says and regrets the words as soon as they fly out of her mouth. His reaction isn’t harsh like she expects though.

‘I really have to tell you about my mother sometimes,’ he says, bitter and somehow amused at once.

‘You really do.’

It takes a lot to keep her nerve and look him straight in the eye, but she wants him to know she’s taking this seriously. He’s stupidly good at deflection when it comes to questions about his family and his New York life, but she figures if he’s _looking things up_ , they should be able to talk about things like this.

He stares at her for a moment and then nods slowly.

‘I will,’ he agrees. ‘At some point, Rory. I will.’

‘Good. I just want you to know that we can talk about anything.’

‘I know that. Might need a few beers for that particular conversation, but I know.’

‘Good. I mean, yeah,’ she repeats, slightly flustered. ‘Communication’s good. Sharing.’

‘Did I tell you that Luke is finally meeting Nicole’s parents next week?’

‘Wow. That’s - ,’ she inhales slowly, caught off guard by the sudden change of subject. ‘That’s pretty big. And good. Nicole’s nice.’ 

‘Yeah, well. I don’t really know what she sees in him, but I’m fine with whatever gets Luke out of the apartment once in a while.’

‘I like the way you think,’ she says with a sheepish smile.

He smirks at her in that way that does strange things to her insides. ‘Oh yeah?’

She kisses him hard in response.

 

* * *

They make out a bit on the porch before he says goodnight and goes home.

She wishes she had the guts to invite him to stay over; that her mother wouldn’t freak out if he did, but really - she’s willing to wait. Things are going to change in a few months.

She imagines Jess coming to visit her at Yale, getting to know the campus together, sneaking him into one of her English lit lectures. Having breakfast with him in her dorm room and not having Luke walk in on them every ten minutes.

She’s excited for her grand European summer adventure but honestly, she cannot wait for college.

Her mom’s loud exclamation of ‘Rory’ brings her back to reality where Lorelai has replaced Jess on the couch and is babbling about her day while a rerun of I Love Lucy plays in the background.

‘I hate this, you're really inattentive to me when you're in love. Remember me, the woman who bore you? All I ask for in return is attention and admiration from my only offspring. I think that's reasonable.’

Rory smiles distractedly at her mother and changes her position on the couch so that Lorelai is not privy to the blush on her cheeks.

She mentally adds the _in love_ thing to the long list of things she should talk to Jess about at some point.  

Soon.

 

 

 


End file.
